Darin j sallam

When director Darin J. Sallam came to make her feature debut with Farah , she always knew what the subject matter would be: as a little girl, Sallam’s mother used to tell her the story of a teenage girl who was locked up in her room during the partition of Palestine in 1948. “She was locked up by her father to protect her life,” Sallam recalls. “She survived [the conflict] and she made it to Syria, where she met a Syrian girl and shared her story with her. This Syrian girl grew up, got married and had a child, and she shared the story with her daughter—and this daughter happened to be me.” The tale had a big impact on Sallam, who talked about the film’s genesis during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event. “It’s a story that’s stayed with me since I was a child,” she recalled, “especially because I was claustrophobic, and I kept thinking of this girl. And as I grew up, the story grew up with me, so whenever anybody asks me, ‘How did you … [Read more...] about Filmmaker Darin J. Sallam On The Personal Story At Heart Of Jordan’s Oscar Entry ‘Farha’ – Contenders International

Jordanian director Darin J. Sallam and producers Deema Azar and Ayeh Jadaneh have accused Israel of mounting a disinformation campaign against their film Farha and also rebuked the country for attempting to get it removed from theaters and Netflix. The film is set in 1948, in the early days of the Israel-Palestinian conflict which saw scores of Palestinian towns and villages wiped off the map, while some 700,000 people fled the territory. The picture’s titular protagonist Farha is a feisty 14-year-old girl living in a Palestinian village whose father locks her in a room for safety when fighting breaks out, from where she witnesses an atrocity via its small window. The picture, which world premiered in Toronto’s Discovery section in 2021 and has since played a raft of other festivals including the Busan, Red Sea and Malmo, is Jordan ’s Best International Film Oscar entry this year. Following its release on Netflix on December 1, the film has been the target … [Read more...] about ‘Farha’ Filmmakers Accuse Israel Of Attempting To Discredit Jordanian Oscar Entry, Condemn Moves To Get It Taken Off Netflix

The first calendar year to see the physical return of almost every major film festival since the pandemic, 2022 has been a huge morale booster for filmmakers from all around the globe. And now, with the third edition of Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicking off Saturday at 8 a.m. PT, that outreach expands even further: leaving a carbon-free footprint, our online event will showcase the myriad films that soared at Sundance, beguiled Berlin, captivated Cannes, thrilled Telluride, vitalized Venice and touched Toronto, all the while shining a spotlight on the must-see movies that might have flown under your radar. Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream. Since submissions accepted for the Best International Feature Film Oscar category continue to grow — up by something like 30% from just 10 years ago, buoyed no doubt by the boundary-breaking success of 2019’s Parasite — it is harder than ever before to see where the awards race is … [Read more...] about Contenders Film: International Kicks Off Today With 29 Films, Oscar Submissions Galore

Strange as it may seem, the Oscar for Best International Feature tends to go to movies that are universal rather than geographically specific. Last year’s winner Drive My Car spoke more about mankind’s default setting to loneliness than it did about the specifics of relationship dynamics in modern Japan, just as the Danish drunks in 2021’s Another Round got hammered in a way that was relatable to boozers in every country from Albania to Zambia. Maybe the Academy feels that real life is better left to docs, but a 2015 win for the harrowing Second World War drama Son of Saul suggests that the door is always open. And after a year that saw the whole world reeling from Vladmir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, this might be one of those years that addresses the fact. Clearly, the abrupt nature of Putin’s surprise maneuver on February 24 caught many unawares, especially in an industry that can be slow to react. Maryna Er Gorbach, however, had begun work on her film Klondike — … [Read more...] about Look Back In Anger: Will Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Set The Agenda For This Year’s International Oscar Race?